Compared with Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Multi-Carrier (MC) systems, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, have the advantage of less intra-cell/sector interference due to the orthogonality between the so called subcarriers. However, the inter-cell interference remains a challenging problem for MC systems, especially for those with high frequency reuse.
Power control and adaptive modulation and coding are two effective methods to increase the capacity of wireless systems. For example, power control based on the concept of Rising over Thermal (RoT) were considered in CDMA. In an MC system such as an OFDMA system, with many system characteristics that are different from other types of systems, including CDMA, it remains a practical problem to carry out adaptive modulation and coding in addition to controlling the power to deal with the inter-cell interference and to maximize the network capacity.